[BREAKING] Bombay High Court grants transit bail to activist Shantanu Muluk in relation to Toolkit FIR

The Aurangabad Bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted transit anticipatory bail for a period of ten days to activist Shantanu Muluk in connection with the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Delhi Police related to “toolkit” which was circulated on social media. .The order passed by Justice Vibha Kankanwadi permitted Muluk's release in the event of arrest upon furnishing a PR bond for a sum of Rs. 50,000/-.In his plea before the Aurangabad Bench, Muluk had sought transit anticipatory bail on the grounds that the Delhi Police had stationed itself in the town of Beed which is his native town for the past three days and seized several material without following due process of law..Advocate SS Jadhav appearing for Muluk sought for transit bail for the limited purpose of engaging a lawyer in Delhi to approach the competent court for seeking appropriate reliefs..State opposed the application challenging the jurisdiction of this High Court to hear a matter registered in Delhi. It was also pointed out that the Delhi Police was not made a party to the application and neither was the FIR annexed. .Justice Kankanwadi noted that Muluk was apprehending arrest as the Delhi police had already stationed themselves in Beed."Under such circumstance, application cannot be rejected only on the ground that Delhi Police are not party to this application. The purpose of the bail application itself would get frustrated." the order reads..Muluk is one of the founder of the XR India, an organisation working for environment and creator of a platform where information regarding ongoing protests would be displayed and modes of peaceful protest were given..Muluk's contention was that he and his colleagues are innocent and had bonafide intentions with regard to the farmer's protests.He argued that the registration of the case under Section 153-A (promoting enmity between different communities) is a blatant abuse of legal provisions by the State to subdue the voice of rightful dissent.Muluk had stated in his plea that the actual dissenters are suppressed farmers and that he only extended his support to the dissenters..His application came on the same day Nikita Jacob a lawyer and activist from Mumbai sought for transit bail from the Principal Bench of Bombay High Court.He had also cited the case of climate activist Disha Ravi's arrest as another reason why he was apprehending his own arrest.[Read order here]